Everyone saw the switch hand dunk that Blake Griffin threw down on Hawes this past week.  But did you notice Evan Turner’s reaction on the bench after the damage was done.  This clip from csnphilly.com doesn’t give it full justice (but you get my drift).  After his initial chuckle, Turner went on to cover his mouth with a towel as he yucked it up. 

Brian at depressedfan.com looks at the Sixers trade or not to trade options coming out of the ASB and he has some very interesting insight in this post.

Spike Eskin at cbsphilly wrote a great post on the fact that Sixers fans deserve to know the truth about what is going on with Bynum’s knees…”The fact is that if the organization was always aware that Bynum playing was an iffy proposition, it was irresponsible to start that hype machine. Irresponsible on the part of the team to paint the team as a contender. Irresponsible on the part of team CEO Adam Aron for fanning the flames of it all…”  AMEN brother…AMEN 

Former 76er Dikembe Mutombo belives he should be in the Hall of Fame and sort of compares himself to Hakeem Olajuwon.  Maybe that Geico commercial has gone to his head.

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On Monday night, the 76ers were beaten by the Los Angeles Clippers in nearly every statistical category recorded for the game of basketball.  Considering they lost to a team nicknamed, “Lob City”, you would think a defining storyline to discuss two days after a 107-90 dismantling would be points in the paint, rebounding and/or fast break buckets.

Even though the Sixers did lose all of those statistical battles vs. the LAC, to me what stuck out more in that contest was the polar opposite impacts each team’s bench had on the game.  At one point in the blowout affair, the Clippers bench combined for 19-straight points in the first half as they tallied 41 points overall in the game.  Meanwhile DC’s second unit contributed virtually nothing until the game was well out of reach.

On the season overall, the Clippers have utilized their talented and plentiful bench to secure numerous victories.  The depth and versatility of LAC’s reserves allows coach Vinny Del Negro to run five bench players on the court at several points in each game without much of a drop-off  – 40.4 ppg. (2^nd in the NBA).

The Sixers, on the other hand, have been the recipients of close to zero production from their bench this entire season – 25^th in the League with 27.6 ppg.  Prior to their garbage time induced 32 point outburst against the Clippers, the Sixers bench had been simply brutal in its last seven games.  Over that stretch, Collins had received the following point totals from his non-starters — 15, 33, 19, 7, 21, 11 and 8. 

If you’re keeping track at home those numbers produce an average of 16.2 ppg. over the seven game span.

That’s simply disturbing.   

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Now that multiple 76ers players have joined Andrew Bynum on the team’s injured list, head coach Doug Collins has started to suggest his depleted roster is the reason this team is struggling through a down season.

Well coach, injuries are part of the game and until this past week, you only had one key player from your lineup miss significant time.  Thus it’s hard to justify the injury excuse as the reason behind the Sixers disappointing season. 

So let’s stop making excuses and find a way to win because you’re being paid millions of dollars to lead this NBA team to victories not to whine about the suddenly injury plagued roster that you helped build.

If you look at the Sixers’ Atlantic Division rival, the Boston Celtics, one would find evidence that clearly teams in the NBA can win a few games here and there even without their star player.  In fact, the Celtics are now 6-0 in their games since  Rajon Rondo tore his ACL against the Atlanta Hawks on January 25.  The reason for their recent success?  Boston has incredible depth at the guard spot ever since they brought in Courtney Lee, Jason Terry and Leandro Barbosa this offseason.

The Sixers on the other hand have very limited depth on their roster and now that injuries have become a factor, this glaring fact is killing the team.

 
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The 76ers are now amidst their first three-game winning streak since November 25-30, and outside of Andrew Bynum’s continued absence and Thad’s hamstring strain, which will put him out the lineup for three weeks, a number of things are going well for the NBA team that inhabits the Wells Fargo Center.

All-Star point guard, Jrue Holiday, continues to play well.  A rejuvenated Spencer Hawes is finely contributing on a nightly basis.  Nick Young continues to thrive as a starter.  Lavoy Allen has found a pulse and Sixers ball boy Tucker Colton (a.k.a. Tuck Money) is blowing up on the Internet. 

Wait, what?!?

That’s right, in the last week the Sixers have put together their first significant winning stretch in over two months and the most popular Sixers topic on the web is the team’s ball boy (@tuckcolt) and his crazy mic skills.  

Philadunkia scribe Jake Fischer recently caught up with Colton (pic at left with Swaggy) and learned about the ins and outs of being a NBA ball boy as well as Colton’s music career.

 
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In an underwhelming, frustrating, and (so far) disappointment filled  season for the Philadelphia 76ers, there was been one thread that has held the fabric of the team together.  It’s been the all star candidate Jrue Holiday, who is having the best season of his career and quite frankly is the captain of a basketball ship treading through muddy water.  But, when that thread comes apart, and when the captain steers off course, the fabric tears itself and the ship finds itself completely lost.  There’s no better illustration of this then in the Sixers’ 110-102 loss to Milwaukee Bucks last night.

While, another Sixers loss was disheartening enough for a city starving for wins from anybody – anywhere (Villanova notwithstanding), Holiday’s failing performance in what was an all star selection audition against Brandon Jennings sunk their emotions even lower.

After all, if a basketball team is going to roam in the world of sub-mediocrity, at least it’d be nice to do so with an all star to boast about.  But, as Kyrie Irving cemented his all star spot with a 40 point outburst against the Celtics, Holiday looked  just as dull as the team he would represent in Houston, in their final game before all star reserves are announced. 

 
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Lost in all the hoopla surrounding Andrew Bynum shooting some free throws and actually breaking a sweat on the basketball court was an interesting article by philly.com’s John Mitchell in which he stated that the Sixers should “at least explore the possibility” of trading Evan Turner.  Trading Turner is a topic that has been written about and debated many times here at Philadunkia over the last year.

Of course Mitchell’s article indicated that Sacarmento’s problem child DeMarcus Cousins would be his top choice for the Sixers to receive in return for Turner.  Again, the Turner for Cousins trade is another topic that has been discussed at length here at Philadunkia.com.

Inspired by the “trade Turner” momentum that continues to build here in the comments section on Philadunkia and Mitchell’s article, I reached out to my colleagues and contacts in various NBA front offices to discover what exactly is Evan Turner’s worth on the NBA trade market.

After the jump, I’ll reveal what those NBA folks had to say.

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As the title suggests, the 76ers should have a favorable next 16 games.  Home court is a valuable commodity.  In the playoffs, it’s worth a shade over 5 points.  In the regular season, it is worth about half.  Attacking the rim is the biggest way to increase home court advantage or negate it.  For all intensive purposes, few teams have a smaller home court advantage than the 76ers.

The previous road trip was as successful as possible for a team that went 2-6.  All the games except for the San Antonio Spurs game, and half of the OKC game were competitive.  4 of the losses were against (projected) playoff teams out West and the team got a win against Memphis, which was the best, win of the year.  The Lakers win was expected to be swapped with the Phoenix loss but a good win-loss is better than a mediocre win-loss.

Unless Bynum returns, these next 16 games will feel like this past road trip.  Only 2 of the next 16 games would have Philly as the favorite on a neutral court.  If John Wall returns and is playing well by January 30^th, that game is a pick em’ on a neutral court.

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Corey Seidman at csnphilly.com has a preview of the Sixers at OKC tonight.  It ain’t going to be pretty. 

Ric Bucher talks about whether or not Jrue will be an All-Star.  He has an interesting take on a long running debate here at Philadunkia.com

Phil Shore at Yahoo! Sports, takes a look at something we have discussed in depth here at ‘Dunkia…starting tonight in OKC, the Sixers upcoming schedule is brutal.

Saturday is the 30th anniversary of Dr. J’s filthy rock-the-cradle dunk on the head of Lakers great Michael Cooper.  Mark Perner of the Daily News looks back at one of the most iconic plays in 76ers history.  

Former Sixer great Charles Barkley doesn’t think you’re smart enough to be voting for the NBA All-Star Game participants.

Speaking of voting…A look at the latest All-Star voting results shows that Jrue is still in the Top 10 among East guards.

Checking in on Arnett Moultrie, we find that he is playing decently (double-double on New Year’s Day) on 27 mpg. for Sioux Falls.

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A relatively new and popular way of analyzing sports teams and players is through the use of advanced statistics.

Around the NBA, you’ve seen teams hiring their own stat guru’s to better evaluate talent based on their findings.  Early in December, the Memphis Grizzlies hired ESPN’s highly popular analyst, John Hollinger, as their Vice President of Basketball Operations.  At the beginning of the season, the Sixers hired Aaron Barzilai, creator of the website basketballvalue.com, as the team’s director of analytics.

The most famous stat-guy in the front offices of an NBA team is Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets. He was the first NBA general manager to be hired through the Moneyball concept of thinking.  This past offseason, he famously signed Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik while also trading for James Harden.  The Rockets are now one of the most intriguing and exciting teams to watch in the League, currently holding the NBA’s second-best offense.

Being relatively new to the subject of advanced statistics I couldn’t think of a better way to both enlighten myself about the topic and to give readers a better understanding as well then to interview one of the more popular number-crunchers out there today.

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